Zuma taken aback by no vote campaign

Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils attends the launch of the "Sidikiwe Vukani! Vote No" campaign at Wits University in Johannesburg, Tuesday, 15 April 2014. The aim of the campaign is to get struggle activists and others not to vote for the ruling party – or at least to spoil their ballots on May 7. The campaign, they say, is protesting against corruption and current government policies. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA

President Jacob Zuma has described Ronnie Kasrils’s spoil-your-ballot campaign as a “very funny thing”.

Zuma told the state broadcaster he hoped he would get an opportunity to talk to the former intelligence minister and African National Congress stalwart about the campaign he launched on Tuesday, SABC radio news reported on Wednesday

Zuma said the ANC, including Kasrils, had fought hard for the right to vote.

“It’s a very funny thing… he [Kasrils] was not just a comrade, he was a friend.

“Maybe at some point we will have an opportunity to meet him and engage him,” said Zuma.

The “Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote Campaign” calls on South Africans to either vote for a minority party, or spoil their ballots.

“If the ANC were to lose three, four percent in this election they’ll still be in power, nothing will stop that,” Kasrils told reporters at the launch at Wits University in Johannesburg.

“But what that signals… is that, my God you guys [ANC] better wake up… you’re not going to last for five years, you’re losing more and more respect.”